Journey to the West: I Apprentice Under Taishang Laojun and Cultivate the Five Spirits Within

Within the human body dwell five gods, each residing in one of the five organs.

The Heart God, Danyuan, with the courtesy name Shouling; the Lung God, Haohua, with the courtesy name Xucheng; the Liver God, Longyan, with the courtesy name Hanming; the Kidney God, Xuanming, with the courtesy name Yuying; and the Spleen God, Changzai, with the courtesy name Huiting.

Each of the five gods has its own duty, and all lie dormant.

Beyond the five gods are another twenty-four gods within the body.

Beyond the twenty-four gods are another thirty-six thousand gods.

Qin Hanming transmigrates across two lifetimes, arriving in the Spring and Autumn period.

His previous life is gone, like dust lost in the sea.

In this life, he resolves to seek immortality!

At Hangu Pass, purple clouds stretch thirty thousand miles eastward. He sees an old man in a purple robe, riding an ox backwards and about to pass through the gate.

Qin Hanming bows to the ground. “This disciple sincerely wishes to follow the Way. I beg the Sage to take me as his apprentice!”

Laozi refuses him three times.

Qin Hanming observes the world with his heart and sees the joys, sorrows, and deaths of ordinary people. Everything is an illusion; only eternal life is real.

Kneeling on the ground, he comes to a realization. “What I seek may not be granted. But I will keep seeking, because if I do not, I certainly will never obtain it.”

A glimmer flashes in Laozi’s eyes. “You understand that if you do not seek, you will never obtain it. That is enough.”

The Palace of the Heart, the Golden Hall, the Wood Mansion, the Water Mansion, and the Earthen Terrace: the five organs become grotto-heavens, and the body itself becomes a world.

Earthly immortals live forever, but their nature remains unsettled.

Metal nature cannot be broken or corroded, and is therefore the treasure of all things. When the world within the body is perfected, one’s nature becomes like metal, impervious to countless tribulations.

The thirty-six thousand gods take their places, and the world within the body extends everywhere.

In the Western Ox Continent, a great enlightened one speaks of life’s eight sufferings, with the inability to attain what one seeks being the greatest.

Laozi says that one enters the Way through suffering, seeking until the heart dies; when the heart dies, the spirit lives.

The paths differ, but they lead to the same destination.

There has never been only one path to the Way!